Manama, Bahrain  - Bahrain launched an international licensing round Monday designed to pave the way for extraction companies to dig deeper in their search for natural gas.

Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) chairman, Abdulhussain Mirza said that his country was pursuing various options to secure its growing demand for gas.

"Among these options is enhancing gas recovery from the Bahrain Field, active exploration programs in all Bahrain's offshore areas, taking gas conservation measures and deep gas exploration," he said.

Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas who has always been credited for his work for humanity was honoured by the Hollywood fraternity at a ceremony, which was conducted in Los Angeles.

The famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who is also the founder of the association, Shoah Foundation’’s Ambassadors for Humanity in 1994 appreciated the American actor for his contribution in saving many lives not only through his art but also by his humanitarian contributions. The foundation was formed in order to collect and preserve stories for the survivors who suffered the Holocaust.

It was recently reported in a British daily that the Booker award winner ‘Aravind Adiga’ sacked his agent who helped him in winning the august prize. The 34 year old Aravind recently bagged the most coveted award in literary arena for his debut book, 'The White Tiger'.

The ENT department of Apollo Hospital conducted a total of 18 cochlear operations on stone deaf children on Friday. The operations which were funded by the Rajiv Arogyasri programme of the government, was done successfully on children between the age group 2 to 9 years who for the first time ever will be able to hear and talk.

After 3,988 cases and 49 deaths because of dengue being reported across the nation except few states, it is now the State of Punjab which is falling under the grip of it. Number of hospitals are getting cases from across the state who are now finding it difficult to manage the inflow of patients.

The difficulty is all the more aggravated as the government hospitals are not properly equipped with the facilities required and the patients are now being sent to PGI in Chandigarh or private medical college hospitals in Ludhiana. It has been reported that more than 50,000 cases approximately has come up.

The infamous Aarushi murder case which happened in Noida on May 16 took another turn when the important records were reported missing from the Noida district government hospital. The files in which the pathology tests of the deceased were kept, held the cue as to whether the girl was sexually assaulted by the suspects or not were vanished.